Video

Rebel groups detonate huge car bombs in western Aleppo

Massive blasts rock western Aleppo, with video uploaded Thursday purporting to show rebels launching car bomb attacks against government-allied forces in their attempt to break the siege of east Aleppo. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

TRANSCRIPT +

NATURAL ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
STORY: Syrian rebel groups launched car bomb attacks against government-allied forces in western Aleppo, a monitoring group said on Thursday (November 3), they tried to revitalise an offensive which has made little progress since taking most of Dahiyet al-Assad suburb on Friday (October 28).
There were clashes between rebel groups and pro-government forces around Dahiyet al-Assad and near the 1070 Apartment Blocks, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added.
Three videos uploaded to social media purport to show bomb attacks by the Islamist Jaish al-Fatah rebel group in the 'New Aleppo' area and one an attack by an unspecified rebel group on the adjacent '3,000 apartments' area. Both districts are in government- held Aleppo facing Dahiyet al-Assad.
Both Islamist and Free Syrian Army groups are taking part in an offensive against government-held western Aleppo that began last week, which is partly aimed at breaking the siege on the rebel-held east but has made little progress after some initial gains.
Syria's army, backed by Shi'ite militias and Russia's air force, succeeded this summer in surrounding eastern districts of Aleppo, besieging the Sunni rebel groups who seek to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad as well as around 250,000 civilians.
The army and Russia on Wednesday told rebels they should leave eastern Aleppo by Friday evening, signalling their temporary halt on air strikes in the city, which began on Oct 18, would extend until then.
Damascus has told rebels and residents of eastern Aleppo that they can have safe passage out of the city, either to other areas held by the opposition or to resettle in government areas, but rebels have rejected that and few people have left.

SPONSOREDSTORIES

Reuters is the news and media division of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms.

*All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.